I am a relatively new photographer. I have no problem understanding the technical side of photography (I am an engineer by trade), but I do struggle with the more 'artistic' side of photography (composition, symmetry, choice of color/B&W...)

Can anyone suggest any reading material (either online or books) that could help improve my artistic side?

15 Answers
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This book is a rare gem, in that it does a pretty superb job of covering all the critical artistic topics of photography in a generally agnostic way. Michael Freeman is a talented photographer, and his communication of compositional aspects of photography is second to none. You may not learn everything about the artistic side of a specific kind of photography from this book, but you'll definitely learn the general basics that can be applied to most forms of photography.

Two other books by Michael Freeman should also find their way into your collection:

These three books comprise my favorites out of my entire collection, and have been the most useful (and most used) over the two or so years I've been doing photography. They do not get into the specifics of any specific field of photography, so if you are looking for detailed information information about a single field, you will have to look deeper. I generally do landscape photography, and I can offer some superb books for that field that can help you expand your artistic horizons beyond the fundamentals covered in Freeman's books. For other fields, like portraiture, architectural photography, street, etc., others can hopefully help you find what you need.

I do landscape, nature, and wildlife photography, so most of my books are related to that area of photography. Here are some other great books that I found that have helped me learn the artistic side of things:

David Noton's "Waiting for the Light" — Another excellent book for landscape photographers, this one explains how to find and use natural light.

When it comes to other types of photography, I don't have a whole lot to offer. I've perused some books on portrait and wedding photography, however I don't own any and couldn't offer much. Architectural photography seems to be an area that is fairly lacking in books. There do seem to be some great books from individual architectural photographers that showcase their works, and observing other photographers work is a great way to learn, but it is limited. Another field I have started to delve into is astrophotography. There do seem to be a few books and resources in that area:

Most of the books I have learned from are for landscape and wildlife/bird photography, so I am not certain how useful they will be for you. I think the compositional concepts are very sound, and apply to more than just nature photography, however.

Not so much a book explicitly about composition, however it has a ton of example nature & landscape photographs from visionary photographers that make excellent material to review and learn from...some truly fantastic stuff. All photographs, their location, and the gear used to capture them is detailed in the back of the book. Each set of photographs from each interviewed photographer includes their sense of vision and style, which can be helpful.

Eventually instruction-oriented books won't be as useful to you, and you'll need to start looking at (and thinking about) photography directly. What you should pick when you get to that point will depend on your taste, but if you have even an inkling of interest in street photography or photojournalism, there are worse places to start than this:

I don't have any specific book recommendation (I don't tend to read books a lot, as it seems), but I would suggest not getting too focused on "photographic composition", but rather widen the field into "image composition". Composition is a field that has been of interest for as long as man has created images, so there is a lot to learn from the painters that have been around for so much longer than photography.

I've read the training manual. It is rather outdated in terms of the technology discussed, but gives a very good look at how to get your images "right".
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DragonLordMay 24 '12 at 10:11

Of course outdated, but rules not changed ;) I saw many qestions here which are the answers in this book. Composition, portrait etc. And it just look outdated, I not see any obsolescence issues here. Only what is outdated, that digital imaging is not discussed, but this is for post processing only not shoting.
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DudeistMay 24 '12 at 13:21

I'd be inclined to suggest buying photo art/coffee table books -- collections of great photographs. To me exposure to good photography helps to inspire your own, as long as you don't succumb to just imitating. You would expect the Beatles to have listened to The Band, and Michelangelo was probably familiar with the work of Leonardo da Vinci.

Which books to purchase (or online galleries to review) really depends on what kind of photography you are into, but if you don't know of any famous photographers you could try google/wikipedia searches like "contemporary photographers" or "american west photographers" and once you get some names start looking up their work.

Or you could start looking at the work of Ralph Gibson, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams (who was kind of a geek, liked to understand processes, why things worked the way they did), Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Annie Leibovitz, or Gregory Crewdson.

Lots of people have suggested books, and articles, but I'd like to add (internet) photography forums, or even just photography sections on other forums. If you find one which has users with portfolios you like, and the people who post there don't seem too up themselves, then you really lose nothing by joining and posting.

These create a really great was for you to get live constructive criticism, and help you develop your own style and sense of photography, eventually leading to learning how to critique yourself, and when to see if the critique is objective or subjective as you get better and better.